Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/187



18, on page 59 is a notice for three claims of iron ore. 6 A notice to hold a limestone quarry is dated Sept. 18 of the same year, the claim being somewhere "above the mouth of Dutch Creek." In the same year Sam Newhall took up a soapstone quarry on the "right hand fork of Jackson Creek and running across Kanaka Flat." Then in May and June of 1861 there was a veritable silver boom. 7

In 1864 an Act 8 was passed by the legislature giving authority to miners to make laws for their districts. Associations of men seem inevitably to tend to become units of government, even though these be ephemeral. There are, moreover, laws recorded or referred to for fiv years preceding this act of 1864. If volume one of Mining Records could be found, mining laws of the territorial period would probably appear. It is altogether likely that such laws, if sufficient unofficial sources could be uncovered, would be found to antedate county government itself. The first laws which have been found so far begin in volume 2, page 112, and bear the unattractive but suggestive name of Humbug Creek.

Some of the laws are drawn with much simplicity, others make an obvious effort to sound technically legal in phrasing, but they all show considerable perspicacity

6 Same source, p. 59: Three claims of iron ore are described in the location notice as on the "North side of Bear Creek . . . upon the trail leading from Bear Creek to the head of what is called Dry Creek. The general bearing of said Iron Ore is S E from a certain Red Oak tree marked J. H. near a Gulch." The claims belonged to James, William and George Hamlin.

7 Pages 221-220 of volume 3 are a solid silver record. The big silver lead was discovered at the head of California Beaver Creek, by A. G. Hatch, May, 1861. Shortly afterward another was opened "about one mile south of the headwaters of Elliott Creek," and a third "on Siskiyou Mountain on the divide between Elliott Creek and Beaver Creek." These three discoveries were probably the result of effort excited by the filing of a silver claim the preceding February, on Spring Gulch, running along the crest of the mountain toward Applegate creek. It was to be known as the Emerald Ledge in the Mining District of "Thompson's Creek."

In all, 28 silver claims were recorded in May and June. There were more later on in the summer.

8 General Laws of Oregon, 1843-1864 (Deady), page 814, section 6. Law of Ort. 24, 1864 (in part): "Miners shall be empowered to make local laws in relation to the possession of water rights, the possession and working of placer claims and the survey and sale of town lots in mining camps, subject to the laws of the United States."

This act was entitled "An Act to establish and regulate quartz mining claims and in relation to placer claims, town sites, and water rights in mining camps." It superseded the Act of Oct. 19, 1860, which had superseded that (the first) of Jan. 21, 1859.